It seems like every month there is a new catch phrase in the Internet Marketing realm. After the penguin update there has been a love fest for content. The “Content is King” doesn’t seem like it is going to be going away anytime soon. On the other side of the table you will find people who claim “SEO is King.” That phrase isn’t very popular after Penguin, but there are still many people who live that phrase out by their methods. Whatever happened to PPC, email marketing, audience building, and all other methods that are far to easily forgotten? This is the trap of the one dimensional marketer.

Content is NOT King

I have found that this phrase primarily revolves in certain circles and became popular after the Penguin update. It was the easiest way out for spammers to become marketers and gave the opportunity for people who were proud of their “white hat” tactics to beat their chest and claim victory. Content marketing is the way of the future. But is content alone enough?

No. It is not. Posting and Praying doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter how great your content is if no one can find it. Anyone who has ever created a website from scratch will testify to it. Instead of giving you the answer (unless you have already tried it then you know) lets go through a practical example.

The Everywhereist is a blog by Geraldine who is the wife of Moz founder Rand Fishkin. She has done a fantastic job growing and developing it and has been featured in Forbes, CNN, BBC Travel, and on Oprah. She does not do SEO nor does she do any marketing.

By the criteria her site would be the poster child for “Content is King” but is that the case? Technically yes since that is the only thing she did, but it can be very deceiving until you look under the hood at her analytics. Rand opened up the analytics to his wife’s website, so we can can get an inside look to her traffic.

Source: Moz

For 2 1/2 years she was receiving very little traffic, and out of nowhere her traffic changed dramatically. It skyrocketed and has been consistent ever since. So what happened? She was mentioned in TIME Magazine for being a Top 25 Blog of 2011. It was that single article that completely transformed her audience.

Don’t believe me? Listen in her own words from this interview. At 27 min 30 sec she answers the question “What was your biggest break in terms of traffic?”

She didn’t do any promotion, but someone did. Someone tapped into the massive reader base of Time Magazine and sent a portion of their audience to her website. It probably didn’t hurt to have the founder of Moz promoting her content as well.

Content by itself is like a screen door on a submarine. It ain’t happening. It can take time to grow a blog, but there are variables we have control over. Here are some key points about content.

If you post it, they will not come

Content greatness is not an algorithm factor

Promoting content and audience building is a must

Lesson to Learn: Don’t rely on content alone. Content by itself doesn’t build an audience. It is the foundation to retain an audience once they find you.

It seems like every month there is a new catch phrase in the Internet Marketing realm. After the penguin update there has been a love fest for content. The “Content is King” doesn’t seem like it is going to be going away anytime soon. On the other side of the table you will find people who claim “SEO is King.” That phrase isn’t very popular after Penguin, but there are still many people who live that phrase out by their methods. Whatever happened to PPC, email marketing, audience building, and all other methods that are far to easily forgotten? This is the trap of the one dimensional marketer.

Content is NOT King

I have found that this phrase primarily revolves in certain circles and became popular after the Penguin update. It was the easiest way out for spammers to become marketers and gave the opportunity for people who were proud of their “white hat” tactics to beat their chest and claim victory. Content marketing is the way of the future. But is content alone enough?

No. It is not. Posting and Praying doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter how great your content is if no one can find it. Anyone who has ever created a website from scratch will testify to it. Instead of giving you the answer (unless you have already tried it then you know) lets go through a practical example.

The Everywhereist is a blog by Geraldine who is the wife of Moz founder Rand Fishkin. She has done a fantastic job growing and developing it and has been featured in Forbes, CNN, BBC Travel, and on Oprah. She does not do SEO nor does she do any marketing.

By the criteria her site would be the poster child for “Content is King” but is that the case? Technically yes since that is the only thing she did, but it can be very deceiving until you look under the hood at her analytics. Rand opened up the analytics to his wife’s website, so we can can get an inside look to her traffic.

Source: Moz

For 2 1/2 years she was receiving very little traffic, and out of nowhere her traffic changed dramatically. It skyrocketed and has been consistent ever since. So what happened? She was mentioned in TIME Magazine for being a Top 25 Blog of 2011. It was that single article that completely transformed her audience.

Don’t believe me? Listen in her own words from this interview. At 27 min 30 sec she answers the question “What was your biggest break in terms of traffic?”

She didn’t do any promotion, but someone did. Someone tapped into the massive reader base of Time Magazine and sent a portion of their audience to her website. It probably didn’t hurt to have the founder of Moz promoting her content as well.

Content by itself is like a screen door on a submarine. It ain’t happening. It can take time to grow a blog, but there are variables we have control over. Here are some key points about content.

If you post it, they will not come

Content greatness is not an algorithm factor

Promoting content and audience building is a must

Lesson to Learn: Don’t rely on content alone. Content by itself doesn’t build an audience. It is the foundation to retain an audience once they find you.

Josh SmithJoshSmithjosh@ninjanerd.comContributorI love all things Internet Marketing. I have experienced working with small businesses to fortune 500 companies. You can find me on my website Ninja Nerd.Thoroughly Modern Marketing